A Sponge Bob kind of day

After an afternoon at the beach, there’s nothing like spending a little quality time with Sponge Bob Square Pants. Well, in Sam’s mind anyway. This particular Saturday was no different. Sam ran upstairs and within a minute I could hear the familiar sounds of Sponge Bob rewinding on the VCR.  

After a few minutes I heard a loud THUD. I’d be lying if I said I really noticed. Thuds, slams, bangs and other noises are normal at our house. We only investigate big things… like the house falling down.

About 90 seconds later, I saw Sam run by the outside window. Surprised and confused, it took a second before I yelled a little frantically:

Me: OHMYGOD! Tony! Sam’s outside! He jumped out the upstairs window!

Tony: (dismissively) No way.

Me: Yes, way! He’s outside. How did he get there? There is only one door and it’s locked and alarmed.

Just then, Sam rounded the corner and approached the door, laughing. I opened the door.

Me: Did you jump out the window upstairs?!”

Sam: (proudly) Yes!

Me: Are you crazy?! You do not jump out windows!

Sam: (laughing) No jump out windows, Mommy!

I ran upstairs. Sam followed. Sure enough, the window was wide open. A simple jump down landed him safely on the trash bins below. Thank God for trash bins. I turned again to Sam:

Me: You are in big trouble.

Sam: (trying hard not to laugh) Big trouble, Mommy.

Me: I’m not in big trouble. You are.
Sam: You are. 

Window shut, secured and locked, I said, "OK, Houdini, no more window jumping." The video rewinding resumed and I went downstairs.

Tony: What possessed him to do that?

Me: I don’t know. He never did say. The thing I can’t figure out is what did during the 90 seconds after we heard the loud thud.

Tony: Oh he probably just laid on the trash bins in shock over what he had just done.

Still alarmed I went back upstairs to reminded Sam you don’t jump out windows. “Sam, I said, “It's dangerous. You could get hurt.” Sam continued to laugh, saying, “Is dangerous. No jump out the window.” As I tightened the lock on the window again I told Sam to stop laughing and get dressed to go out or Sponge Bob might find his way into the trash bins below.

With amazing speed, the laughter quieted and Sam was ready to go.  

By the time we left the house I finally calmed down, resigned to never understanding why Sam jumped out the window. My thoughts now on other things, I was vaguely aware of Sam scripting the Sponge Bob episode he'd been rewinding earlier: “You call this work? Well it’s a lot harder than it looks. Sometimes my butt itches and sometimes I have to look for the remote control. What’s that noise?” I began to pay more attention as I heard Sam say one of the final lines:

“That’s just Junior jumping out of the second story window.” A lightbulb went off. 

"Tony!" I said, “That's it! The answer to the window jumping. Blame Sponge Bob.” Mystery solved, the only thing left to do was eat dinner. If you think we went looking for crabby patties you'd be wrong. We chose a burger joint. We'd had quite enough Sponge Bob for one day.

Wish you could see the episode? You can check it out here: http://spongebob.nick.com/videos/clip/rock-a-bye-bi-valve-full-episode.html (Note the 9:07 mark or what we like to refer to at our house, the scene of the crime.)

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Walking the walk

One step, two steps, three steps, four. That's how we do a walk in our family. We take a deep breath, throw in a little hope, put one foot in front of the other and just walk.

On our first try, we didn’t get very far – maybe only 100 yards. But we didn’t give up. It was a start. We knew we could do better. The following year we doubled it. A year later we almost made the distance. Ok, it was a toss up whether we’d finish from the back of a garbage truck or a police car (we chose the police cruiser), but hey, we finished and we cheered our Sam because we could see in his eyes he'd done his very best. 

We didn’t give up. We were intent on making the distance. We had friends and family rooting for us and we were determined to make them proud.

Finally, finally, in our 4th try, with determination in his eyes, Sam finished for the very first time. You can’t imagine the elation. It was like winning a gold metal after years of trying. Part of us couldn’t believe we actually did it and the other half wanted to shout how very proud we were of what Sam had finally accomplished.

This is important stuff, you see. It is the Walk for Autism Speaks and it is Sam’s charity. I am not sure why Sam chose it. Maybe it was the blue puzzle piece. Or the way Suzanne Wright looked deeply into his eyes and held his hands on the day of that very first walk. 

Old pros now, on Saturday we did our sixth walk. We entered the familiar tent waiting for the shout of “go.” And did we go! With a smile ear to ear, Sam walked the familiar course like a pro with me struggling to keep up. We passed people on the right and people on the left, finishing in record speed.

With the help of a lot of friends and Sam’s personal efforts selling his cards and drawings, Sam’s team finished 4^th for fund raising and Sam finished 4^th for individual donations. Wow! I asked Sam write about his experience and for anyone who missed his facebook post, here’s what Sam had to say:

Autism speaks walk. Is good. I walked the beach. Long walk. Lot of people.  

They sing autism speaks. I feel good. Hi everybody thank you.

As just one family of the collective whole of touched by autism, we thank everybody indeed. Today the world looks just a little bit brighter because of the many kind and generous people we are lucky enough to know.  As Sam would say, “Is good.” 

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